As used herein, “chip” or “die” refers to a semiconductor shape substantially comprising electrical circuits while “photonic chip” or “photonic die” refers to a semiconductor shape substantially comprising optical circuits.
As used herein, “photonic circuits” refers to the monolithic integration of active and passive optical circuits on a mostly silicon platform. Examples of passive optical circuit components include a silicon rectangular waveguide, an Echelle grating and multimode interference devices. Examples of active optical circuit components include Mach-Zehnder switches, Mach-Zehnder modulators and rectangular waveguide germanium photodetectors. Integrated photonic technology can bring technical advances to data communication and telecommunication. In the former, the communication bandwidth between processors can be enhanced over greater distances when transmitting optical bits rather than electrical charge bits. In the latter case, optical core routing can be more energy-efficient and cost-effective if conducted on an integrated silicon photonic circuit instead of being conducted in a cabinet of electronic switches, optical-to-electrical and electrical-to-optical converters. While many technical advances toward a photonic chip router have been recorded, effective ways to bring light onto a photonic chip and out again have been relegated to few optical channels in research settings.
To be economically and technically advantageous a photonic core router on a chip preferably has a sufficient number of precise and reliable optical input and output ports, a condition which is yet to be fulfilled.